The plot has thickened in this seemingly ongoing Saudi takeover saga as Richard Keys’ (BeIN Sports) relationship with an influential Garry Hoffman comes under the microscope.
Who is Gary Hoffman you may ask? Well, he is a former Barclays banker who was appointed the Premier League’s Chairman on June 1st.
Suspicious timing when you look at the turn of takeover events we’ve experienced since then, and even more suspicious when you hear what Richard Keys has had to say about his “very good friend” below.
Given Keys is a Qatari-based journalist working for BeIN Sports (strong opponents to this Saudi buyout) and has made it abundantly clear he’s against this NUFC takeover, the following clip makes you wonder to what extent did their relationship influence this deal?
Not only that, this relationship he boasts about with the man he knows “very well” seems all the more intriguing given the amount of inside knowledge he’s claimed to have had on the takeover over the past few months. A potential breach of NDA’s? A conflict of interests?
The latter seems very possible when you consider the Premier League have just hired someone whose ex-employers at Barclays are in the middle of a legal dispute with Amanda Staveley’s PCP!
Add into this the fact Keys has been erasing some of the comments he’s made detailing his relationship with Hoffman and it’s not a good look at all – for him, Hoffman, the Premier League or Qatar/BeIN Sport.
He will point the finger at piracy, but this stinks of a conflict of interests and points to something many of us have feared all this time – the Premier League don’t ideally want this deal to go through and have allowed themselves to be influenced by parties outside their remit, not simply focus on this pass or fail test that should be completely objective.
Who knows, but a lot of the above does not sit right with me and should be investigated.
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Cancel Sky football it just goes to the FA sky totally biased
J oetting(Quote)
should be a easy job for the fraud squad with all this evidence laying around, personally i have not watched any football since all this as been going on, i didn’t realise how much corruption was in English football, the Saudis, spend a lot of money in the UK, this is going to do real damage to our economy.
Kevin Blewitt(Quote)
No wonder they are trying to block nufc take over . Staveley get the deal back on
Paul J Carter(Quote)
Think the media should be pushing this if they have the evidence??
Aren’t most of them ‘In the know’ and have ‘Sources close to’ to push this if they think so strongly about claims Richard Keys and the PL Chief are in Cahoots???
OR is this another ‘Look at me’ Story??????
Do us a favour and help out rather than add to the misery and false hope.
Cocobear(Quote)
Has someone sent this to Henry Winter, George Caulkin, Matt Slater and asked them to publicise and dig deeper?
Need to get this into mainstream media.
Hofman’s murky connections are the key to all of this.
Keith Smith(Quote)
Think there will be more than just them two,not just total disregard for our club but our city, the northeast with master bates in charge of the fa the future of our club is as safe as r keys mates daughter s! ❗
davep(Quote)
This should be sent to all Media outlets, you never know, but someone might just do some digging into this information and start asking some difficult questions of the P/L and Bein.
Magpie0722(Quote)
This stinks and is rotten to the core and definitely needs to be investigated
Michael Gibson(Quote)
Of course – that’s how you get the top jobs in any organisation. By just doing what your friends tell you to do.
Do you really think that Hoffman, having just walked into the job is going to do what his “mate” says?
As for breach of NDAs and conflict of interests – Keys socialises with many club owners, almost every manager, and hundreds of players. That’s where he gets his usually reliable information from.
As for Hoffman passing him information – Hoffman took over in June and Keys has been spouting long before that. Since Hoffman took the post what has Keys said? Most notably that the deal would be announced “before Friday”, when the buyers pulled out on the Thursday, so the deal was obviously nowhere near being approved.
If what you say is true then Hoffman has to be the worst leaker of information in the history of commerce.
I think this definitely falls into the “clutching at straws” category of journalism.
It seems to me that bloggers are getting like politicians – they’ll say anything if they think it will get them a few extra votes.
Helen Clarey(Quote)
The illustration graph/chart showing the connections of Richard keys and masters And Hoffman with the timing and agenda is key it’s superbly done full credit to whoever is responsible you must get it posted to other media outlets do your damnedest to get it to the top if possible for the government aswell as the rest of the country to see let’s nail these scumbags and their illegal activity’s their agenda is clear they have been exposed ! ????
Michael perry(Quote)
Is calling Hoffman a Barclays banker rhyming slang
Terry(Quote)
I for one have said this from the start that bein sports richard keys was getting information off someone in the premier league regarding the takeover as he knew alot of stuff beforehand, and the face that I know i personally commented on richard keys twitter post about him and Hoffman and how he knew this stuff has now disappeared as I checked yesterday but couldn’t find them the premier league and richard keys are guilty of 1 main law breaking crime and that is confidentiality law they revealed information regarding the takeover to outsiders. The fact that richard masters and the premier league have kept quiet only shows they know they have done wrong and are guilty as hell a full investigation is needed into the premier league richard masters gary Hoffman this is not just about the takeover now this is about how the premier league conduct there business (corrupt) and just like the fifa scandal who who from the premier league was handed bribes to do certain things regarding the takeover.
Steve johnson(Quote)